Bardeyn (Warmian-Masurian Voivodeship, Poland)

Bardeyn (also known as Bardehnen and Bordehnen; now known as Burdajny; coordinates: 54.0865, 19.8554 [54° 05' 11.4" N, 19° 51' 19.4" E]) is located approximately 31 kilometers (19 miles) east of Elbląg (Elbing). In 2013 it was a village in the administrative district of Gmina Godkowo, within Elbląg County, Warmian-Masurian Voivodeship, in northern Poland.

Bardeyn was a village formerly in the district of Holland in East Prussia, one of several villages given by Duke Albrecht to a party of Dutch peasants for colonization on 31 January 1527. Bardeyn became the seat of the Dutch settlement, which developed slowly. Not until 1530 was it possible to proceed with the election of a mayor and a pastor. In the same year the colony was augmented by new immigrants from Holland, and although they suffered from repeated attacks of the plague and many moved away, several years later the village was filled again by new settlers.

Religious troubles were added to financial difficulties; in 1543 the Dutch were compelled to send representatives to Schmauch for church inspection, who made a written statement declaring that the concept of baptism and communion held by the settlers was not in accord with the Prussian church rules. They were thereupon ordered to leave the duchy. After several petitions permission to remain was granted those who would recant in Königsberg. Most of the Dutch now left the country. The settlement at Bardeyn died out except for small remnants, which gradually merged with the German and Polish population.

The first settlers were "Sacramentists"; later additions were mostly Anabaptists, who won the native peasants to their doctrine. The church inspection of 1543 revealed that the Dutch of Bardeyn were Anabaptists, and upon this charge they were banished.